“Isla…” Raffael takes another hesitant step. “Get down.”
“Who was on the phone?”
More staff members walk onto the deck, their panic stalking me from every angle.
“Tell me, Raffael,” I beg.
His nostrils flare. “Fine. It was?—”
“I’ve got her,” someone shouts from below as a hand grabs my ankle. Too tight. Too sudden.
My foot slips.
I gasp, glancing down. There’s a crew member, harnessed, and climbing up from the lower deck.
Vertigo rushes toward me again. The sky spins. My grip falters.
I turn my focus back to Raffael. My equilibrium doesn’t follow.
Our eyes lock as I flail.
He lunges.
I reach for him.
But it’s too late.
I fall, the churning water rushing up to claim me. Shouts explode above. Screams pierce the air.
Then I hit the surface, and the ocean swallows me whole.
Chapter
Fifteen
RAFFAEL
She disappears over the edge,leaving nothing but riotous panic in her wake.
I drop my cell to the floor and sprint for the rail as shouts of “Man overboard” erupt around me. Radios crackle to life. The air pulses with the chaos of life or death but I’m already airborne, diving in after her.
The ocean hits hard, cold enough to steal the breath from my lungs and gut-punch my instincts. I open my eyes underwater and scan the murky turbulence while the yacht continues to glide forward.
The captain should’ve killed the engines, but the propellers won’t stop on a dime. It’ll take at least thirty seconds for them to wind down, and until then, the back of the yacht is a death trap.
Which is exactly where Isla is—ten feet below the surface, thrashing, flailing but not getting anywhere as the props drag her along with the yacht.
I kick toward her. Arms slicing. Lungs rebelling.
The propellers slow as I fight to get to her, every foot of space a battlefield of exertion.
But even as the death drag dies down and the hull glides away without her, she doesn’t rise. She’s losing strength, hereyes wide and wild as they lock on mine, a silent scream sending a rush of bubbles toward me.
I push harder, legs burning, throat closing.
She’s starting to sink as I reach her. I grab her fingers, then her wrist, before locking my arm around her waist.
I kick for the surface, my pulse slamming through my head, my lungs demanding a breath I can’t give. The threat of suffocation cinches around my throat, tightening with every heartbeat.
